1. It’s hard to reduce vulnerability to the natural hazards without identifying them. I spent several years living in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, before college. In personal opinion, Ankara is located in a fairly mild climate zone. However, according to Nathan World Map of Natural Hazards, Ankara is Zone 3: MM VII of earthquakes, and the Anatolia Plateau it sits on falls into Zone 3 or 4 of earthquakes. This could probably be explained that Turkey sits at the boundary of Eurasia, Arabian and African plate¹. According to the data, Ankara is in Hailstorms zone3, extratropical storms zone 1, tornados zone 2, and wildfires zone 2. These graphs are super useful depicting the general natural hazards level around the world. What’s more, I see the trends of more precipitation and snowfall in subpolar area and more drought and less agricultural yield in subtropical area.
2. The hazard I picked is an earthquake with 3.6 magnitude level that is happening at the moment of writing this in Iran. Ankara is like my second home so I would like to use Ankara for this discussion. As mentioned above, Ankara lies in a relatively ‘earthquake zone.’ During my years staying in Ankara, I didn’t experience any earthquakes but there were several major earthquakes happened elsewhere in Turkey like the one in Van with magnitude of 7.2 in 2011² and another one in Izmir with a minor magnitude. So Ankara has a very high risk of earthquakes and it is very vulnerable to it. Most of the year Ankara regulates its water supply and the density is fairly high. If the earthquake strikes, people would have a hard time with water supply and having enough shelter places. What’s more, the roads are mainly single or two lane roads which are really narrow, after the earthquake the rescue and disaster relief forces will have a hard time getting round when roads might be blocked by fallen buildings and trees. The earthquake I chose which is happening in Iran is M3.6, which is not as severe as major earthquakes. As for the potential impact the site says: “A few people might notice movement if they are at rest and/or on the upper floors of tall buildings.” The later part interests me that the people who live in upper part of building may feel the movement rather the one live in the lower floor. Anyway, if a M3.6 earthquake hits Ankara might have really minor impacts. However, if the pipes are being damaged, residents will have a serious water shortage as water have to be accessed from some place far away as there isn’t much water reservoir around Ankara. One thing I am worried about is the density of residential buildings in Ankara. They are mostly built one next to each other with very little distance between each building as the photo shows, one falling building during the earthquake might create domino effect³.
   
   There is a large population of children and elders in the city, they will be very vulnerable to earthquake impacts as their mobility, physical and mental conditions are much less prepared than adults. They also have less accessibility to the news and related hazard forecast. In my opinion, the city of Ankara could set up lots of community offices to function as an assembly place for emergency, spread out hazard forecast information to elders and kids in the community and storage of food and water. This way Ankara could be more prepared for earthquakes.
3. Other main natural hazard Ankara is facing is drought. Turkey is mountainous in its area around the boarders, but the Anatolia plateau makes up its center territory. For cities like Ankara, Eskisehir, Kayseri, Konya, and Nevsehir, the water supply mainly comes during winter season with precipitation and snowfall. In 2007, Ankara experienced a major severe drought result from lower than normal precipitation during winter seasons. During the summer when the drought took place, the water level drops to less than 5% of the reservoir capacity⁴. The city has to limit the water supply by two days on and two days off pattern with a limited amount. The press is also making efforts by urging the public to cut the water use.
4. I wasn’t in Ankara in 2007, but during my yeas in Ankara I never felt there is a risk of water shortage thanks to sufficient snowfall in winters. Both the public and the government should be blamed for the 2007 drought. Turkey doesn’t have an emergency plan for a drought besides cutting water supply, nor does the public lack the awareness of the risk of drought. Ankara, from its history setting, isn’t the best location to have the capital with such a large population. Government should put a cap on the population of Ankara and encourage people to move to coastal cities as there are less risk of drought or other natural hazards. If drought happens, I would do my best on water saving as I practice it during daily life.

Sources:

1. “Map of Tectonic Plates.”Tectonic Plates Map and Information Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2016. http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/tectonic.gif
2. Mackenzie, Craig. “Frantic Search for Survivors Continues as 272 Killed and More than 1,300 Injured after Buildings Collapse in Turkish Earthquake.”Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2052493/Turkey-earthquake-2011-death-toll-rises-270-killed-1-300-injured.html
3. “Geschiedenis: Arabieren | Presentation View | FlipQuiz.”Geschiedenis: Arabieren | Presentation View | FlipQuiz. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.http://looklex.com/e.o/slides/ankara01.jpg
4. “BBC NEWS | Europe | Water Cut in Drought-hit Ankara.”BBC News. BBC, 03 Aug. 2007. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6929186.stm